Kuwait names Saudi man as suicide bomber in mosque attack

Thousands of Sunnis and Shiites from across the country take part in a mass funeral procession for 27 people killed in a suicide bombing that targeted the Shiite Imam Sadiq Mosque a day earlier, at the Grand Mosque in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Saturday, June 27, 2015. Police in Kuwait said they are interrogating a number of suspects with possible links to the bombing, which was claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo)

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Kuwaiti authorities on Sunday identified the suicide bomber behind an attack on a Shiite mosque that killed 27 people as a Saudi citizen who flew into the Gulf nation just hours before blowing himself up.

Police have begun making arrests in connection with Friday’s bombing, which took place at one of Kuwait’s oldest Shiite mosques during midday prayers. An affiliate of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the blast in the normally peaceful oil-rich nation.

The Interior Ministry named the bomber as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Gabbaa and said he was born in 1992, making him 22 or 23 years old. It said in a statement carried by the official Kuwait News Agency that he arrived on a flight to Kuwait International Airport at dawn Friday.

Authorities also said they arrested a 25-year-old from Kuwait’s “bidoon” community, identified as Abdulrahman Sabah Eidan Saud, who they say drove the car that brought the bomber to the mosque.

The bidoon community is made up of descendants of desert nomads and others considered stateless by the government. They have long claimed the government deprives them of citizenship and rights.

A Kuwaiti man who housed the driver was also taken into custody. The Interior Ministry described him as a follower of a “fundamentalist and deviant ideology.”

The government-linked Al-Jarida newspaper reported that at least seven suspects had been detained in connection with the attack, which has drawn condemnation from Sunni groups in Kuwait and leaders from across the Middle East.

Officials say 227 people were wounded in the attack.

A local affiliate of the Islamic State group calling itself the Najd Province has claimed responsibility for the bombing. The IS group considers Shiites to be heretics and is fighting Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.

More than a third of Kuwait’s 1.2 million citizens are believed to be Shiite.